"Hey, Sarge. I know we're on an active case, but I was hoping I could take off a little earlier than I usually do." I looked around to make sure there was no one else within earshot as we walked halfway down the hall.
"You do what you need to do to get back on track," Voight said in understanding, knowing what we had talked about earlier that morning. "Keep me informed on what you get from the little boy's mother."
"Copy."
"Hey, so I found out the little boy's name is Felix Montero," Kim said, walking up to me. Now I understood why he had wrapped our conversation so quickly. "Found a photo album sitting out in the living room. There was a picture dated last month from his seventh birthday party. "This is one part of the job I don't like."
"Yeah," I sighed, digging my hands into my pockets. "I get it. I feel the same way."
"You ready to go to talk to the mother?"
"Actually, I need to make a quick phone call. I'll meet you in the lobby in about five?"
"Okay," Kim agreed with slight confusion in her voice, although she went with it. "I will see you down there." Waiting until she disappeared around the corner, I walked a few feet from the crime scene, pulled out my phone and dialed.
"Adlai E Stevenson Elementary, this is Ellen." The school secretary answered after two rings. There was something about this lady that I loved from the very first time I met her.
"Hi, Ellen. This is Hailey Upton."
"Hi, Hailey. How are you?"
"I'm good, thanks." I moved further down the hall as forensics came out of the little boy's apartment. "Can you please let Eva know I will pick her up somewhere around four-forty five today?"
"I will let her know."
"Thanks. How is she doing?"
"She's still in class, so I'm going to say she's doing okay, but I will check up on her when I take this message down to her and I will let you know."
"That would be great. I may not be able to respond but please let me know if there are any more issues that come up."
"We'll do what we can to resolve them. If we can't we'll let you know."
"Thank you." I appreciated her school was making such an effort to help Eva. I could only hope that continued. "Bye." Hanging up the phone, I sighed in relief as I reached the bottom of the stairs to just beyond where Kim was waiting in the lobby.
"You good?"
"Yeah, I'm good," I confirmed, changing the subject back to our case. "Where's the mom at?"
"She's waiting outside." Kim pointed outside the door as I peered around the corner. "Two friends showed up a few minutes ago." Following Kim, we approached the victim's mom cautiously.
"Mrs. Montero," Kim spoke to her gently. It was easy to notice the woman was still in shock and a shell of what she used to be. "I'm Officer Burgess. This is Detective Upton. We're so sorry about your loss. If it 's okay, we'd like to ask you a few questions."
"I'm okay." She told her friends, who were questioning whether she was up for the task. When she had confirmed she was, her friends reluctantly left her side. "Thank you."
"Did you see what happened?" I tried my best to pull her attention back to gathering any information we could use to find who murdered her son. At the same time, it was hard not to feel broken for her. He was the only thing she had left.
"No." Mrs. Montero responded numbly, staring right past us to the open door of the building. "I was in the shower. Then I heard loud bangs from the hallway." It was hard to put my feelings aside, that whatever might happen to me, Eva could be in the same situation one day.
"Do you know who's living in the apartment where the shooting happened?" Kim prodded a little further.
"We just moved in. It was supposed to be a better neighborhood." The way she said we just moved in ate at me a was nothing she could have done, but yet you could see it in her eyes; she blamed herself.
"Okay. Did you see anyone suspicious? Someone running away. Someone." Jotting down the information, Kim paused as Mrs. Montero's gaze faltered towards a group of four men standing just behind the police line. They were making her nervous, which made at least me wary that they might have something to do with the shooting. Their stares were more than intimidating, which seemed to rattle her a little.
"They always tell you, whatever happens, you never talk to the police. But I don't care." She stated boldly, gaining confidence as she turned back to us. Almost as if she was sending them a message that she no longer cared what they thought. "These animals took my boy."
"What did you see, Sarah?" I prompted, pulling her full attention back to our conversation.
"Two men going down the fire escape."
"Can you describe them?" Kim questioned, pen in hand and ready to write down any more information, although I had a feeling we wouldn't be getting much more from her.
"Latinos. Young, like twenty."
"Okay, anything else?"
"They had ski caps." Mrs. Montero mentioned, keeping her eyes intentionally off the growing crowd of people. Some were from the building, others had stopped by with wonder of what was happening.
"Ski caps."
"And they drove off in a dark car." She rubbed at the side of her forehead in a more than a stressed way. Being out here talking to us, relieving what happened to her was the furthest thing from her mind, no doubt. "After I heard all the shooting, I-I went to look for Felix. He wasn't feeling well. He was taking a nap. And there he was, blood everywhere." Suddenly, her eyes shot up as forensics brought her son down, covered and wheeled down the sidewalk on a stretcher. Her breathing increased, her knees seemed to buckle as she wailed over and over, "No...no my boy." Kim and I grabbed her arms as she watched in horror.
"We're going to stay with you, okay?" I whispered as much comfort as I could muster at that moment, but she gave one small nod as we helped her to the car. "Come with us."